After a hard but productive winter, Route 79/138 demolition phase is almost over

Monday

Apr 14, 2014 at 12:39 AMApr 14, 2014 at 12:59 AM

Don't tell the spaghetti ramp contractors or state officials that it's been a harsh winter. For them, the $197.3 million accelerated bridge project begun last fall has been forging ahead.

Michael Holtzman Herald News Staff Reporter @MDHoltzman

FALL RIVER — Don’t tell the spaghetti ramp contractors or state officials that it’s been a harsh winter. For them, the $197.3 million accelerated bridge project begun last fall has been forging ahead.

“There’s been a minimal amount of time lost to weather — on snow days a few hours here or there,” said Howard Goldberg, Barletta Heavy Division’s project manager.

“I think we’re right where we thought we would be,” said Goldberg, whose firm is working in conjunction with O & G on the mammoth Route 79/Route 138 bridge improvement and replacement project, which includes separate repair and repainting work on the underside of the Braga Bridge.

According to Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials Gerald Bernard, assistant construction engineer for District 5 in Taunton, and Amy Getchell, MassDOT project manager, 90 percent of the Route 79 spaghetti ramps will be demolished in the next week or so.

When that’s done, roughly two-thirds of the demolition work on some 8,700 feet of nine viaduct ramps will have been removed by hoe rams, grapple claws, hydraulic swivels and other heavy equipment that’s been tearing up the steel and crushing the concrete since fall.

MassDOT plans to hold a public hearing, to update the community on its progress and plans, at the end of the month and will announce the specifics later this week.

The demolition being completed in this early first phase of the project will see additional ramps demolished in the area around Pocasset Street. Ramps accessing Interstate 195 are scheduled to be demolished in Phase II after a limited number of new access ramps are built, Bernard said.

Nearing the end of Route 79/138 demolition, the last leg has been to tear up the deteriorated Davol Street railroad bridge between Central and Anawan Streets that cut a tight path for motorists between two mill buildings.

If one were awakening from a Rip Van Winkle-type slumber to see the open skyline vistas and clear blue of the nearby waterfront that have replaced the rusty green, multi-tiered ramps, there’d surely be a lot of eye rubbing to take in the changes.

MassDOT officials were asked the question most anyone would ask: How much stuff did you take down, and what do you do with it?

On a 3½-year project, Barletta’s crews have removed more than 5,000 tons — 10 million pounds — of structural steel to date. That total will increase to roughly 7,000 tons when all 8,700 feet of ramps have been removed, MassDOT said.

To date, the concrete — crushed and excavated — totals about 30,000 tons, and the quantity will rise to 48,000 tons after Phase II.

MassDOT officials and Goldberg said all the material is property of the contractor. Its value was factored, indirectly, into the bid, they said.

The steel is being trucked to numerous scrap yards, like a Mid City Steel in Westport, where it will be recycled for use in other industries, Goldberg said.

He said the scrap concrete is not as valuable a commodity. The bulk of it is crushed for use in gravel mixes and for backfill, with subcontractors hauling most of it off-site.

He said both the concrete and steel are, “recycled into useful products. It’s not going to a landfill.”

“Everybody’s impressed with the amount of demolition being done,” Goldberg said.

So what’s next on the horizon?

Like any complex project, important work starts underground, as crews remove the old infrastructure to lay the foundations of what will be built above.

Work to relocate underground sewers, electrical and cable utilities, some of it a century old, as well as replacing drainage, has been ongoing, Bernard said.

What’s only been visible as crews moving tons of earth in the area of Broadway and Anawan Street will evolve into the construction of walls and roads.

That’s the area where the Davol Street bridge will be rebuilt, spanning 630 feet between Central and Anawan streets, and directly over the railroad.

“The bridge is still in its final stages of design,” Getchell said, noting the design-build project model affords flexibility.

North of the turnaround and close to Heritage State Park, utility replacement on Davol Street will be ongoing.

Adjacent to the Gates of the City, utility relocation and excavation work is underway on the Water Street Connector road.

The approximately 800-foot meandering road will link Broadway extension and Water Street. A bridge will be built over the railroad.

Workers have started to construct the footings for that bridge and adjacent walls, according to Bernard. With excitement in his voice, Bernard said the public “is going to start to see the project rise out of the ground” this spring. He said he expects the road to be open by the end of the year.

Bernard and Getchell provided brief updates on a few other elements.

On the Braga Bridge, painting and repairs resumed last week on the Somerset side. This week, steel cleaning will start on the Fall River side, above the State Pier and Battleship Cove.

Work on the Braga will continue until the middle of 2017, MassDOT officials said.

Early on, among the aspects state officials emphasized with new access ramps and roads and numerous detours, was that motorists would adjust and gain familiarity with the changing landscape as the project continued. In large part, that’s because the detours planned were for the long term, although they continue to be subject to temporary modifications.

Overall, Getchell said, “The current detours will stay in effect for approximately another 12 months.”

She said the beginning of the milelong project, by the Davol Street turnaround, just south of the old Regatta, would provide conditional northbound access this spring.

This will give the public access to community boating and, when it opens, the restaurant that’s nearing completion at the Regatta site.

Getchell, Bernard and Goldberg said they were extremely thankful for the public’s cooperation.

“Everybody in the city has been absolutely wonderful,” Goldberg said.

“We want to thank the city of Fall River for all of their patience,” Getchell said. She said the residents and business owners, “have been amazing.”

“We are in very good shape,” Bernard said. “We are on schedule to meet the contractual completion dates.”

Those dates are for full beneficial use of the Route 79/Braga Bridge Improvements Project for the fall of 2016.

“Even with the terrible winter we had, because of only doing demolition and not construction, we were able to get a lot done,” Bernard said.